76 | Let's chat... why I left Instagram, email list growth, digital products & affiliate marketing
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
Let's chat... why I left Instagram, email list growth, digital products & affiliate marketing
In this episode, listen to Rosemarie Callender from the Podcast to Amplify Show interview me on how I’m growing my business without relying on social media, and the sustainable approach I’m taking to market my business online.
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Grab the Thrivecart Lifetime Deal
Listen to The Podcast to Amplify Show with Rosemarie Callender
About my business.
As an Online Business & Marketing Mentor, my main goal is to help you build a business that you are in love with. I have been victim to all the sleazy marketing tactics and strategies and the belief that you have to do business a certain way if you want to be successful, and so, for the first year of my business, I was not running a business that I enjoyed. I was following all these made-up rules and using traditional marketing strategies that didn’t necessarily feel good to me… and I hated it!
So now, I help online business owners build a business that actually feels good to them. One that allows you to put your life first and spend more time doing the things you love outside of your business.
The role social media plays within my business.
At the start, social media played a huge part in the success of my business. I came into the online space back in 2019, so Instagram was huge back then… and the engagement on the platform back then was something we can only dream of today!
But because I had such a great start with Instagram, I didn’t prioritise building my email list, which I now see as a huge mistake. I didn't leverage email marketing as much as I should have, and it's only been the past year and a half that I've really started to grow my email list and prioritise sustainable marketing over social media.
Nowadays, Instagram doesn’t play as big of a role in my business. As reach and engagement started to decrease on the platform, it slowly became more of a burden than a place I enjoyed marketing my business and so I decided to change the way I used Instagram for business.
Pivoting to a static 12-grid Instagram feed
A static feed is a funnel of a set number of Instagram feed posts (usually 9 or 12) that act as a funnel into your world. They introduce you, your brand and your offers. The idea is that when someone new comes to your profile, they make their way through those static posts and learn everything they need to know about you, and how to continue the relationship. But the great thing about a static feed is that it means that you're not showing up on your feed anymore. Instead, you have this static feed that’s always there.
Honestly, this strategy relieves so much pressure that I always used to feel when it came to Instagram. I do still use the platform lightly as I still love to show up on Instagram stories because that's more like real, raw, behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t require too much effort to create. And I love to post on Threads as well, but I'm just not putting as much pressure on myself to show up on social media anymore and it’s been a huge weight off my shoulders as a solopreneur!
How I’m prioritising email marketing & audience growth.
I have always had an email list, but when I first started my business I didn’t really understand how to grow it. For the first three years my growth was very slow and stagnant at times and after 3 years, I had grown to around 700 subscribers.
Since I was doing so well with Instagram marketing, I didn’t see it as too much of a priority. But after seeing a lot of creators on Instagram getting their accounts disabled, getting locked out of their accounts, not being able to get back in… I was like “That cannot happen to me, because if that does, I'm screwed.”
My whole business was on social media, and that just wasn't sustainable in any way. So in 2023, I made it a priority to really focus on building my email list, and I've seen such great results since I started prioritizing that.
My top strategy for email list growth
In the past year alone, I’ve grown my email list from 700 to 7,000 people. One of the main ways I’ve done this is by hosting, and contributing to, free bundle events. If you want to learn more about what a bundle is and how you can leverage this strategy, click here to listen to episode 56.
And aside from these events, I’m also continuously driving traffic to my email list by talking about it within my podcast, sharing lead magnets within my blog posts and creating Pinterest pins leading to my free resources and content.
How digital products & courses transformed my business.
When I first started my business, I solely worked with one-on-one clients and for a while I really loved it, like I got to really know my clients, I got to serve them in such an intimate way and it was really rewarding.
But eventually, I got to the point where my calendar was full. I was always on calls and the introvert in me just hated it. I wanted more freedom and didn't want to always have to be on a call to make money. So I began to brainstorm ways that I could bring more freedom into my business. That's when I decided to launch my first digital product.
It was a $57 offer that I created and launched within a couple of weeks and by the end of that launch, I had over 100 people purchase the offer. For context, at that time, I had maybe 500 people on my email list and 2,000-3000 Instagram followers. So I didn't have a huge audience and all of my marketing was organic, but it really did help me to start growing my list and serve more of my ideal clients.
The launch of this first product affirmed to me that digital products and courses were the path that I wanted to go down and that’s when I really started expanding my offer suite to create 1:many products rather than solely focusing on 1:1.
How I’m leveraging affiliate marketing to make passive income.
I’m a huge fan of affiliate marketing and have multiple strategies to bring in passive affiliate income on autopilot.
One thing that has worked well in terms of affiliate marketing for me is placing ads in my podcast. After my initial introduction and brief welcome to the episode, I like to place a quick ad before the main bulk of the episode begins. Within this ad, I’ll often share my thoughts around a product or software that I’m using for my own business and am an affiliate for (such as Thrivecart*) and encourage my audience to go to the show notes to learn more, where they’ll find my affiliate link.
Another way I love to leverage affiliate marketing is through an ‘Other things you might want to know about…’ section at the bottom of my weekly emails. Here, I often share affiliate links to bundles I’m a part of, products and resources I’m loving, sales that are happening etc. and this is a great way to generate affiliate sales without making the entire email about that. It’s a little bonus at the bottom that most of my email subscribers love and they can choose whether to take it or leave it!
CONNECT WITH TISH:
Instagram: @marketingwithtish
Website: leticiajcollins.com
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Hey, I’m Tish!
I'm a marketing mentor for ambitious entrepreneurs who want to create more time, freedom & profit in their online business, in a way that feels good to them!
If you’re ready to build a sustainable & scalable business on your own terms… then grab a cuppa, get comfy & stay for a while ☕️ ✨
